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Newfoundland and Labrador Nowadays Newfoundland/Labrador is from a linguistic perspective the most homogeneous area of Canada The majority of Newfoundlanders call English as their sole mother tongue (98 per cent; 1991) Newfoundland/Labrador has a rich linguistic history, since it was one of the earliest areas of the New World to be discovered However, most of the languages have totally disappeared

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Although in-migration peaked in the first half of the 19th century, its effects have been minimal: According to the 1991 census, over 92 per cent of residents were born within the province; Fewer than 2 per cent were born outside Canada, the majority from these being from the United States or Britain Newfoundland and Labrador

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French minority There are three distinct groups of French-language origin currently found in the province: 1 st group: - located in and near the city St. John`s - Consists of approximately 1,000 francophones - Is primarily Québécois, but also contains French speakers from Europe and St-Pierre/Miquelon - Many work for the federal government, as well as the school and university system

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French minority 2 nd group: - Located in the Wabush area of western Labrador, where the earliest francophones arrived in the late 1950s to work in the developing iron or ore industry - Is also primarily of Québécois origin - In 1971, over 2,000 people (approximately 11 per cent of the population of western Labrador) were francophone - In 1986 however, after a downturn in the minig industry, the French-speaking population had decreased by approximately two thirds.

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French minority 3 rd group: - Located in the southwestern part of the island of Newfoundland, in the area of Port-au-Port peninsula and St. Georg`s Bay - The first French speakers of Newfoundland settled this area at the end of the 18 th century - By 1850, the population of this area was 80 per cent French

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French minority The 20 th century proved a period of major cultural and linguistic assimilation for the French speakers of Newfoundland`s west coast. This was reinforced – at least until 1970 – by the lack of minority- language rights. While the church had attempted to provide French-speaking priests throughout the 19 th century, this ceased after Schooling was provided exclusively in English and punishment was meted out to students using French at school

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French in Stephenville (3 rd group) The decline of French language and culture accelerated after 1940 with the construction of an American air force base near Stephenville (the largest of the francophone west-coast communities) The employment opportunities offered by the base drew a large number of English-speaking Newfoundlanders to the area Newfoundland`s confederation with Canada 1949 did nothing to curb the assimilation process By the mid 1970`s no resident of Stephenville under the age of 50 spoke French as mother tongue.

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French minority preservation By the beginning of the 1970`s emerged the availability of government support for French minority groups: Several francophone associations were founded. They play an important role in fostering linguistic and cultural identity. In 1974 French-language television was introduced from Montreal. In 1975 a bilingual school was established in the village of Cap-St- Georgs. More recent developments, in at least some of the Port-au-Port communities, have included bilingual postal services and a French- language community television channel.

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Minority language preservation The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has no official policy The only minority whose linguistic rights are governed by legislation are Newfoundland French: Article 23 of Canada`s Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees French-language education for children of Canadian cities whose mother tongue is French, at least where numbers are sufficient to warrant this. Minority languages, whether of aboriginal or European origin, are seriously threatened.

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Newfoundland English

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It is the name for several dialects of English specific to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador For speakers of American English, Newfoundland English is among the most difficult ones to understand Heaviest speakers of this dialect live outport communities, generations are losing their roots Only 25% of youth speak their accent fluently 56% speak their accent “ when they are angry or annoyed” 92% of the older generation speak their accent fluently Separate dialects developed because of the history  Newfoundland was one of the first areas to be settled (1600), mostly by North American English speakers The peak was around 1800, most immigrants stayed isolated on their island, allowing the dialects to develop independent of that on the North American continent Newfoundland English

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Phonological and grammatical features Newfoundland English differs from Canadian English in vowel pronunciation  fear/ fair are homophones Morphology and Syntax  Newfoundlanders use the word bes [“bıs”]  The rock normally bes under water  ’’Bes’’ is a carryover of the Irish Gaelic grammar Preservation of archaic adverbial-intensifiers  That play was right boring Loss of dental fricatives ( voiced and voiceless “th”-sounds) Usually replaced by closest voiced or voiceless alveolar stop t/d

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3rd person singular inflection generalized to a present tense maker  I likes, you (ye) likes... avoiding of the verb “to be” (influenced from Irish, don´t have ‘‘to have‘‘ per se) past participle formed by using “after” instead of “have”  i´m telling after him to stop rounding of long “i”  Mike= Moike Other Expressions Whadd ´ya at? = What are you at Stay where you´re to ´til I comes where you´re at= wait there for me What´s on the go?= what´s going on

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Greatest distinction between Newfoundland English and Canadian English is vocabulary  includes Inuit and first nations words: Tabanask= kind of sled Archaic English words no longer found in other dialects  pook = a mound of hay Created words to describe things unique for Newfoundland  stun breeze = wind of at least 20 knots ( 37 km/h) Words having undergone a semantic shift  rind = bark of tree Words which origins are unknown  diddies = nightmare

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Newfoundland Irish English

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Irish English has been derived from the south-east of Ireland and has almost been isolated from other forms of English in North America until the middle of the 20th century. First Irishmen in the 17 th century, they came for fishing in the summer By the 1830’s number of Irish settlers by Name of Newfoundland from the Irish “Talamh an Éisc” → “Ground of fish” Main settlement: St. John’s The Irish had to adapt to the more progressed and socially superior English settlers Segregation of Irish and English. Irish → southern shore, parts of Conception Bay

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Term of “Anglo-Irish” (→ English form of Irish ‘Anglo’ as a modifier to the head ‘Irish’), Term “Hiberno-English” (→ derived from Latin ‘Hibernia’, a term for ‘Ireland’ and ‘English’), most common and neutral term is “Irish English”

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The position of Irish: Irish influence is based on two aspects: 1) before English was transported to Newfoundland 2) the influence of Irish on English at the new location  Irish loans: Hangashore → useless individual (derived from Irish ainniseoir → mean person) Sleeveen → rascal Pishogue → superstition Crubeen → cooked pig’s food  Direct influence: Because the quantity of Irish speakers is not very high and the sociolinguistic position of Irish would have been as low as in Ireland otherwise The originally Irish characteristic of English speech in the Irish communities on Newfoundland has been intensified through members of religious orders who has been sent to Newfoundland as teachers.

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Irish influence on phonology and morphology: Loss of initial /h/: For the Irish-derived population the status of word-initial /h-/ is always pronounced in contrast to the English-derived population of Newfoundland. It is not only an established phoneme, but also an important morphological function in the language: it indicates the third person possessive feminine: a h-iníon → her daughter, a iníon → his daughter, a n-iníon → their daughter Ambi-dental fricatives: Lack of ambi-dental fricatives in the THINK and THIS lexical set: think [tink] and this [dis] These have been plosivised, or rather were transported to Newfoundland as stops to begin with.

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Stress patterns: A prominent feature of Newfoundland English is the final stress in an accumulation of words. Affected are proper names in local pronunciation, like: Newfound/land, Labra/dor and Carbo/near In Ireland there is also a stress at the end of words, which probably can be traced to the influence of Anglo-Norman. The final stress pattern may also go back to the non-English influence, for instance the many names of French, Spanish or Portuguese origin in Newfoundland. Morphological features: There is a special form for the second person plural pronoun ye to distinguish from the second person singular form you → ubiquitous in Irish-derived Newfoundland English In Irish English exists a negative form of must with epistemic sense. Other varieties of English the epistemic negative is expressed by can. → Example: a. He must be Scottish. b. He mustn’t be Scottish. Irish-English c. He can’t be Scottish.Non-Irish-English

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The Syntax of Newfoundland English and Irish English 1) Perfective with ‘after’: Use of the adverb after followed by an –ing verb form: She’s after breaking the bowl. Michael was after crashing the car. 2) Resultative perfective: This kind of perfective stresses the result of an action, therefore it is found with transitive verbs: I have the door painted.

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3) The habitual aspect: An habitual for the verb be is found with do or with an inflectional –s on the verb stem: a. He does be tired after work. b. They bees out fishin’ of a Saturday. Irish: habitual do is less common than generalised –s, but more common than inflected be. Newfoundland English: do habitual only exists for be. 4) The suffixial –s: Suffixial –s quite common thoughout the verb paradigm with all pronominal subjects. → example: They owns the whole road. Sandra Clarke: The use of inflectional –s is not categorical, but a matter of likelihood.